Into The Nothingness
by BladeVoyage
Summary: Continuing on from the events of the first book, in an alternate ending, we follow a new greenie who comes up from the box and his adventure with Thomas and another Glader, Ashleigh.
1. Prologue

Hello all,

Was going to write a new story on a flight home last night but as I went to write one, I found an older one that was uncompleted. Therefore I will publish that and continue on with it.

Here's _INTO THE NOTHINGNESS_

Enjoy!


	2. The First Darkness

It was the darkness that ultimately took my interest when I first awoke; and though it was distinctly something that shook me to me to my core I became fixated on it for the first moments of my new life. So as I sat, or stood there, waiting, the friend that was nothing but a colour became my only companion. No noise, smell, no feeling - just emptiness. It must have been another few hours before I started to regain thoughts again, questions that could never be answered at this moment in time but would stick with me until I abused their answers. I spent odd moments of time screaming and shouting but wholeheartedly knew it would be no use. Eventually I came to understand that I had awoken in a box, a crate even? Tall enough to avoid my hands touching the top on my tiptoes, wide enough to let me lie flat - enough space to pace three steps each direction. For a duration I thought I was alone, that is until a small box was distinguished by my hands was found in the corner of the space i found myself in. I didn't dare to try to figure out what the box was or what even was inside, I just wanted to wait. My yelling and banging of the walls had tired me out and there was, what appeared to be, enough time to fall into sleep again - for the third time since it began. And so once more I drifted into the emptiness that took me away from the predicament I was trapped within, but nothing came of those dreams. Just empty boats beating against the current in limbo, swaying across from a distant light in the distance. A green light. A faint one at most.

What seemed like seconds later I awoke again in the blackened area. For what could have been another tormented few hours in absurdity, a pleasant surprise eluded me. Not only had the darkness been simmered out by a dim torch light hanging from the ceiling, but I was now given the opportunity to investigate my surroundings. Although I had assumed solid walls, it was in fact fence like walls that surrounded me. Allowing me to peer through I could gather that I was in some sort of elevator, in the middle of a shaft. The outer walls were inches from the fence walls, the outer ceiling to far up high to see. Next came the small box I had figured out was with me in the dark. As predicted, a small wooden crate sat alone in the corner of the mysterious elevator. Apart from the screws that kept the box together, it was completely plain. A bleached wood on all sides - but one. On the third turn anticlockwise, I discovered a small imprint on the box. Scorched in a black tarmac design, four letters were found. Four letters that meant nothing but my ability to read. I COULD read; and for some reason that discovery was special to me. I had spent so much time in darkness I had forgotten the small things I took for granted.

W.C.K.D

It came at no cost to understand I wouldn't be given any answers to what the lettters meant. I could just assume and adjust to what it could potentially mean? I was allowed to sit and stare, of course, but sitting and staring wouldn't give me any more answers. And for the next hour or so, that is all I did. That is until another sense came back to me - hunger.

The world before this elevator had been scattered across the depths of my mind - the memories pizzled into a thousand pieces so recalling the last time I had eaten was distant, impossible to reach. It might have been hours, days even? Though it couldn't have been longer than a week, the hunger had just arrived. No food had been provided by whoever put me in this place and it was that thought that triggered several more. Who put me in this elevator? What were their intentions? What did they hope to achieve from this action? And what had I done to trigger this motion?

But again, these questions only raised more and it wasn't too long until I realised how distant from my memories I actually was. There was only one question that could assure me I was alone in my mind. What was my name?

In the space of the next hour or so, I had drifted in and out of sleep a couple more times, asked a million more questions and had answered none. I was still helpless in this shaft.

So for what I had gathered, a wooden crate with the letters W.C.K.D sat alone next to myself who was alone in an elevator that hung alone in an empty shaft alone, only lit up by a single light. I was, and kept denying, alone.

That is until, the elevator started moving. Upwards. At speed. Heading into the darkness. Into limbo. Into more questions…

INTO THE NOTHINGNESS.

Written by Ben Davies.


	3. It took me to grass

It wasn't my stomach dropping or the intense throbbing in my head, it was the thought that I could potentially be killed at any minute. I was no expert but if this elevator were to hit the top of the shaft at this speed the only thing to remain of me would be guts and pieces of my brain. Those thoughts dominated as I sped upwards through the shaft, holding on to the floor screaming for help, yelling for whatever I was in to slow down. Sweat was riveting down my face into the rags for clothes I was wearing, onto the floor. The light that illuminated flickered in despair, at that moment in time the fragments of events alluded me.

 _Help!_

 _Someone stop this thing!_

 _I'm going to crash!_

 _Somebody!_

 _Ahhhh!_

Suddenly, if things couldn't get any more worse, will taking a short glance upwards, I noticed the end of the shaft had come into sight. The top of the shaft, which would be the cause of my death. This short lived life would be over in seconds and I would never know my purpose, my history or even my name. This was it. And so the flickering light acted as a countdown, with each flash counting down to my death. _Flash!_ Closer, closer. _Flash!_ It became clear that the top of the shaft was a closed exit. _Flash!_ The wooden crate trembled, moving ever so slowly across the floor as it trembled. _Flash!_ Only metres to go. _Flash! Flash! Flash!_

And that was it. My Death. That's how I was born and was killed in the space of a short memory. No more questions and no more answers. No more darkness and no more W.C.K.D. That was my story and I was okay with that because the sense of a bleak future was evident at my beginning. If I started in darkness, I would surely end in it. So a short death was appreciated - a quick one….

Or so I had hoped. But a death was not on the cards today as the elevator stopped moments before it hit the ceiling and I found myself back in the train of the thought that I had to face whatever came next, whether that be more waiting or the opening of the closed doors above me. And for better or for worse, it was the latter.

With a great _Clank!_ and _Crghhh!_ the metallic clunky doors above my head began to open, sliding into their slots on either side. From there came a mighty brightness that poisoned my eye-sight, forcing me to hide myself away with my arm. For a moment I gathered my thoughts and prepared myself mentally for what was to come but nothing did. Above me thrived blue sky for a brief second I attempted to recall the last time I saw the sky - something I failed upon. The opportunity to get out of the elevator was right there but all I did was stand and stare at the clouds passing above my head. Calmness had arrived and I no longer feared the darkness. The light transcluded my body and relaxed it to a significant motion - I could stand here for a few moments more. I could close my eyes and breathe but that would take a moment too many. So in the next couple of minutes, I did what any idiot would do. Pull myself up into the unknown.

Using the wooden crate, my hands were just about long enough to grab onto the top edges of the elevator shaft and after three attempts I managed to pull myself up on the surface above the gates that led into the elevator. And from there I saw grass. Green, elegant grass that distanced as far as I could see with the sunlight targeting my sight. I could look down back into the elevator but restrained from doing so, a nightmare has begun in there and for all I cared, that was the end of my time in there. I had escaped and that all that mattered. Grass was my new friend and that's all it was, grass. No more surroundings that stopped me. I was free. So I ran. Struggling at first but soon picking up the pace, I ran as fast as I could toward the sunlight, away from the darkness. And as I ran ever so quickly, I didn't notice I wasn't wearing any shoes. But how did I know what shoes were? When was the last time I wore shoes? What size shoe was I? How did I know of shoe sizes?

It was almost funny at the questions that arose while I ran but multi-tasking proved difficult in this situation. I could run while looking at my feet but I couldn't think about them - just look.

Then suddenly the sunlight vanished, and after peering up I could see no clouds were covering it. What was covering it was much worse. Possibly more terrifying than the elevator, worse than the darkness, something that would raise more questions that anything. Something I would come to fear more than anything.

Standing high into the skies, towering over around it, creating a death-defying shadow in the process, stood a concrete wall. Slightly cracked in a few places but most definitely covered in grass vines in various spots, the wall acted as God. Looking down and proving I was still trapped, the wall could only contribute to the nightmare that seemed to continue. And as I turned my body to face all the directions I could imagine, the wall continues, in an ever continuing circles, piercing the blue above. I had left one entrapment only to find myself in another. And unlike the elevator which wreaked with potential, the walls screamed that there was no way out.


	4. When I stopped running

We call it The Glade. Something that puzzled me at first but came to be something of the norm. And though we continue with that name, there is no suggestion as to if we are correct. For I still wonder if this place does have a more intellectual name, a year on. But I dare to question it out loud. Dare to question what was already in place when I arrived. And I always wonder where the name came from? As to what I can gather the name simply came from a simple suggestion. However thinking about it, that is one thing that seems normal here. There are plenty more things that I should question but again, try not to. I still have questions from the day arrived, ones I am eager to ask. Though they probably won't answer in truth as they don't know themselves. And by those I talk of Ashleigh and Thomas. The first and only people I have encountered. They are the other Gladers in this place. The only two left. The two who explained everything to me when I began to accept this was my life now. That The Glade was my new home. It was Thomas who spoke first, and rightly so, as he had been at The Glade much longer than Ashleigh.

"I understand that this must all be scary for you, it was for all of us, but the best thing you can do right now is just listen to me, to us, and everything will fall into place...well enough for you to understand what's going on here..." The late-teen boy, built with thin muscle and with short brown hair, stood confidently as he explained. "...I arrived here a year ago, going through the same experience as you, in the elevator. When I first arrived I had no clue what was going on but eventually my memories started to gather. This place is called The Glade, the only safe place we know, the only place we are protected. You see, we're surrounded by walls, as you've seen. On the other side of the walls is a maze, a huge one, bigger than you can ever imagine. During the first few weeks I was here I was introduced to the runners, who went into the maze each day to find a way out but never found a way out. Each evening they would come back with no progress and we would continue on our. This continued for a while and I was even a runner with the others for a few weeks, going into the maze and surviving along with the others. See, in the maze there are creatures, monsters that attack. We call them Grievers. We've lost many to them but we've also killed some back. The good thing is they never come into The Glade, they are only in the maze, and only at night. That's how we scheduled our maze runs, only during the day, when the wall doors were open. It was when a girl named Teresa came up in the elevator that things started go a-wall, and one thing led to another and suddenly we found ourselves being attacked by the Grievers. After losing half of our team we decided that it would be a good idea to escape the maze once and for all, and so we packed up our things and left. Or so that's how I hoped it would go. Just as we were leaving and the doors were closing one final time, the elevator started operating again and I had to make a choice: go into the maze and escape or help whoever was about to come up the shaft again. I chose to stay and let my team go - hoping they would come back and save me. That never happened."

I remember Thomas pausing for a moment, a short time to re-live everything he had been through. Something I granted him for, I respected him for. But that's when Ashleigh began.

"It was me who was coming up the elevator and by the time I arrived it was only Thomas left. And he is the one who looked after me, explained everything to me, helped me adjust to this life. The walls never opened again and Thomas's friends never came back. So we grew to accept life here and began to understand that we would be safe inside the Glade, away from the maze."

And although I had more questions than ever, all I needed at that moment was for everything to be summarised. All together so I could lie down on the ground, look up at the clouds and think. So Ashleigh did.

"So, we're inside The Glade which is surrounded by a maze that used to only open at night but no longer opens at all. In the maze, at night, people killing creatures called Grievers come out and kill whoever is left in the maze during nightfall. Everyone is gone apart from myself and Thomas. But now you too I guess. We stick to the rules no matter what. You break the rules and we banish you to the restricted area of the glade. We have a kitchen, beds, showers - everything you'll need but not everything you'll want."

I was glad they gave me this information but ultimately couldn't come to terms with everything that had happened, though one question lingered rightly in my mind.

"What's W.C.K.D?"

And with that questions, Thomas stormed out of the wooden room we were sitting in. Confusion arose but Ashleigh was quick to explain.

"They're the people who created all of this, the ones who designed the maze, The Glade and the Grievers…"

The rest of the conversation is difficult to remember but that no longer mattered. I was exactly where I was and it wasn't until I remembered my name was Ben that I became desperate to ask questions...

It was a year after the conversation with Thomas and Ashleigh that the doors into the maze opened again. It was a year later that the beginning of the end of the Glade began.


	5. The Entrance

Sitting, perplexed at the sky, at the top of the treehouse, my safe spot, my hideaway. The clouds passed over swiftly and I could only think back to when I was watching them from the elevator during my introduction to The Glade. Though watching them now was different, I was no longer fearing constantly and was no longer surrounded by darkness. This time I was away from the questions and the hurting, I was alone in the sky - yet still not high enough to peer over the walls, over the burden. Although to a certain extent, wanting to know what was on the other side of the walls had passed - I was probably better off not knowing. That thought was until a sudden _SCREECH_ came from one of the walls of the Glade. Loud enough to force me to cover my ears and long enough to make me wonder if the world was falling in on me, the sound continued on and rattled through the Glade. And if it wasn't for Thomas calling me name in panic that I would have stayed put in the treehouse.

"Ben!" A brief pause, then "Ashleigh!". From high above I could see Thomas running through the field of grass that centered the Glade, running toward the wall making the noise. In seconds I found myself climbing down toward the ground and soon enough on the surface. It was at that moment Ashleigh found herself by my side.

"What's going on!?" Yelling over the anonymous screeching.

"No idea!" Ditto with the yelling.

We both quickly turned to see if Thomas was visible and at first glance he was not. But after a second swift turn, Ashleigh pointed out that he was on the other side of the Glade, closer to the area of the noise that continued. Ashleigh and I began our descent toward Thomas and the side of the Glade, praying for our ear-buds that felt like they were bleeding from the god awful noise. Soon enough we got to the source of the noise and it was then my perception of the Glade changed once more. A distinct part of the wall was opening to its side, slotting into a mysterious section between the walls. By the end of the next minute the wall had fully opened and the noise came to a brief halt.

"It's happening again" Whispered Thomas, hiding his voice from who, I don't know?

"What's happening again?" I questioned.

"The maze, it's opening again! It's all starting again!" This time Thomas was yelling, at who, us.

"What does that mean!? For us? For this place?" Ashleigh asked while glaring into the maze that from our position, was only visible by one long corridor-esque pathway.

"It means…" Thomas paused, obviously questioning whether or not he should continue. "It means, we have to go in again. It means W.C.K.D are up and running again and it means… there's possibly a way out".

It was then a mighty breeze forced itself out of the maze and into the Glade, brushing our clothes and hair with it. It must have been at least five minutes before we all stopped glaring into the maze without talking. And, as a surprise to us, in those five minutes, Thomas was deciding what came next for him.

"I'm going in." Thomas.

"Are you mad?" Ashleigh.

"You don't understand, I've been waiting for this for two years now, I can't just wait here!" Thomas.

"What if the door closes again?" Myself.

"No, there's normally some time before they close again. Hopefully enough time for me to get in and search for the others. Search for a way out…" Thomas.

Nobody followed that statement.

"If you're going in, I'm coming with you." Ashleigh demanded.

"No, it's too risky - I go in alone, you wait here with Ben." Thomas.

"I'll be fine on my own if she wants to come with you." Myself.

"No! I've been in the maze several times, I've even killed a Griever and come close to getting out. I know that maze much more than either of you. I'm. Going. In. Alone" Thomas.

And suddenly, even before Thomas had finished his sentence, he was found running back to the shack. Ashleigh and I wondered what he was doing but before long he was running back, back toward us, back toward the maze. However this time he was dressed differently; with a brown satchel over his back, tighter clothes, shoes on and with a water bottle in his hand - this guy was determined.

With no sign of him slowing down, Ashleigh did all she could to stop him with words.

"You can't go in alone - you'll be killed!"

"Let me come in with you, please!"  
"What if it locks you in!".

Thomas only ignored everything Ashleigh was saying and in minutes, Thomas had passed us and ran into the maze. By the time he got to the other side of the wall, he stopped and turned back.

"I'll be back before sundo-"

Thomas was interrupted by another loud _SCREECH!_ \- louder than before. Recovering from the sudden shock, Ashleigh and I looked up only to find the walls closing again, quicker than the opening.

"Oh my god Thomas get back in here!" Screamed Ashleigh!

"Thomas come on - you'll be trapped in there with the Grievers! Get out of there!" I yelled.

But it was no use, Thomas wasn't fazed by any of our words and remained still staring at us, the shadow from the walls distancing him from us.

"I'll come back for you I promise - I promise I'll get us out of here!" Thomas yelled over the screeching, over the horror.

By now the walls only had metres to go before they would be shut. And in those final moments, everything blurred into one.

The walls were closing. Thomas was on the other side, in the maze. Ashleigh and I continued to yell for Thomas to come back through. The walls continued to close with the space between them narrowing greater each second. And despite thinking I could cope without Thomas, knowing he would be okay, it was the next action that shook to me to my core.

WIth only metres to go before the walls would be shut once more, Ashleigh turned to me.

"I'm sorry. You'll be okay. We'll _will_ come back for you!" Then abruptly she turned away and ran between the walls, toward Thomas, toward the maze. I was screaming for her to come back, not to leave me alone. Thomas was yelling for her to return to the Glade and not to follow him. But she continued on, bare foot. Into the shadows of the maze and away from the safety of the Glade. For a moment it looked like she wouldn't make it, but I managed to get a glimpse of her reaching the other side, reaching Thomas and then the walls had closed once more. Leaving me alone. Leaving me surrounded by the grass. For the first time in a year, I had no one, once again.


	6. The Safety of the Glade

"Shit. Shit. Shit!" The only words to escape my mouth but only few in my head. I stood there, still, situated on the closed wall in front of me - wanting it to open again but knowing that it would take time, that's if it _would_ open again. But there was no time to stand still; as Thomas said, it was the first time in 2 years that the walls opened again so who knew what could happen next?

Sunfall was gradually approaching and if another wall were to open then it would give the Grievers plenty of opportunity to attack.

I soon found myself back in the treehouse after collecting the last of the supplies and rations we had. If anything good came out of the wall opening it was the fact that we had opportunity to get more supplies - for the past year we had stuck to a strict diet to ration everything we had.

As I sat at the top of the treehouse thoughts passed through my mind, questions about Ashleigh and Thomas, scenarios about what could be happening the other side. _Why would they leave? Leave me alone? Alone to survive by myself? Alone, potentially for the rest of my life? Are they still alive? Did they escape?_ All the questions became too much, so as I led back on the wooden flooring high in the trees, I soon found myself drifting into the abyss.

I must have been out for at least a few hours before waking again, for by the time my eyes had opened again night had fallen and silence had settled in the Glade. But, it was only seconds after I had re-gained the motions of being mobile that a deadly, robotic _CRGHHH_ filled the land around me. Sitting up like a bolt and quickly peering over the edge of the tree-house, I was left looking down at the dim grass - nothing. Moments later I found myself back on the ground hoping to find a returned Thomas and Ashleigh but still, I was completely isolated from them by the sky-high wa-

Walls. Wait!? Over in the right edge of the Glade another door had opened! But the sound I had heard wasn't a door opening?

"Thomas!?" Yelling at the top of my voice, hoping for an answer, but not receiving one "Ashleigh!?" - again, nothing.

I began to make my way swiftly to the opening in the wall, hoping to find the two on their way back into the Glade. Walking, Pacing then running, it couldn't have been more than a couple of minutes until I had reached the opening. Again, passed the opening to the wall led you into one of the concrete corridor-esque entrances to the maze, with grass vines swinging from one end to the next as well as climbing the walls from bottom to top. The maze was dark, dimmed and fortesque with shadows. And the sight perplexed me, halting me, it made me want to enter but at the same time stopped me from moving an inch. The maze both terrified me and excited me, but despite all this I knew I couldn't go in.

Then suddenly another _CRGHHH_ filled the air, louder than before, snappier than before. However this time I came to realise, the noise was coming from inside the maze - inside the mystery and inside the shadows. And then with that that thought, an appearance from something inside the maze, at the end of the first corridor presented a terrifying sense within me. There, several meters into the maze, appeared a slug like creature, with robotic legs stemming from its side. Green goo dripped from every angle of the creature, especially from its sharp teeth ridden mouth that roared as it turned the corner, causing the deadly sound I had heard twice before.

A Griever.

In seconds the creature had sighted me, and as it's prey, it started to run, clankly, toward me.

"Shit!" Again, the only the words to escape me as I turned to run back into the Glade, back toward the place I call home and back toward somewhere to hide - or else, I would be killed.


End file.
